


For Nothing?

by whittakerswife



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Crying, Emotional Hurt, Episode: s12e10 The Timeless Children, Heavy Angst, Hurt No Comfort, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Inspired by a Miracle Musical Song, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Minor Character Death, POV The Doctor (Doctor Who), Pain, Prison, The Master Has Issues, This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things, Violence, lots of them - Freeform, the master gives her a little comfort? just a crumble
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-14
Updated: 2020-08-14
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:09:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,886
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25899469
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whittakerswife/pseuds/whittakerswife
Summary: "The timelady stands up and steps towards the Master. She wipes her tears, sniffles and looks at him. He looked a little shocked at the hopeless look in her eyes. She seemed ancient, like the time was finally wearing on her despite her youthful appearance. Her eyes were so full of brokenness and despair that the Master visibly looked shocked at it."-heavily inspired by murders by miracle musical
Relationships: The Doctor & The Master (Doctor Who)
Kudos: 12





	For Nothing?

**Author's Note:**

> hi um first thing i wanted to say is that this is slightly off-canon. i rewrote the ending to timeless children slightly to fit what I was writing!!
> 
> also this was inspired by a song!! murders by miracle musical!! i listened to the song a lot but never paid it any mind, then the ending got popular on tiktok and I kept hearing the slowed and pitched version so I decided to spend my day writing this!!

She stood there, on top of the broken matrix. The thing that had culminated every single timelord memory and record; every feeling and sensation that they ever experienced. The Doctor felt everything when she was forced into it, forced to learn about a past she didn’t remember, _one she didn’t even want._ She’d listened to her past-self, Doctor Ruth, her mind cruelly supplied her, and blown out the matrix, shown it every single thing the Doctor had done in her entire run. Too much for the thing to handle.

Her head ached, pounded and throbbed, and she was so _so_ tired. Her body was sore, and she wanted so badly to rest, but she couldn’t. She had a stoic, hard look on her face, hopefully hiding the genuine emotions swirling within the timeladies body.

When the Master goes on his spiel about how he’d broken her, she shook slightly, the tremble evident in her hands and legs. She believed him somewhat because it was true. The Doctor wanted to lie to herself and say she was given a gift, that this made her more. The timelady didn’t want this.

When she brought out the explosive and held it out in front of her, she watched as the Master begged for her to detonate. She trembled fiercely, and she started to sweat. The fear coursed through her body as it had before, but unlike before, it couldn’t be fixed. She’d die with this kind of hopeless, encompassing fear running through her body like this. All her fury was drowned out, and she wishes she could have that instead of this sickly, venomous terror.

When she lowered the bomb, she felt a tear try to escape her eye before she blinks it away. Her face is despondent, and her anxiety rises when the Master sighs, disappointed.

“Oh Doctor, the universe will suffer for your weakness. I’ll make sure of it. But let’s start with your new friends, eh?” the other timelord laughs and broadly gestures to behind her. She wants to reply sardonically, but her eyes widen when she realizes what the man meant. The Doctor hears struggling and distressed voices behind her and turns, afraid. The woman’s eyes focus on the four last humans being held forcibly by four Cybermasters. Ko Sharmus, Yedlarmi, Pavio and Ethan all stood, frightened, and in pain.

“No-! No!” she cries and tries to step in the direction they’re in but stops when the Cybermasters holding them hold their armed arms to their heads, ready to blow.

“Picked them up in the little TARDIS you tried to steal. One TARDIS not enough for you? Was mine not enough for you either, Doctor?” he laughs aloud and claps his hands, making the timelady jump. “Have such an ego, more than me! That’s something you’ve always had over me,” he spins in his spot and shakes in excitement. The woman lets the fury that had been buried mix and swirl with the fear terrorizing her body. “Anyways, I had them picked up from the TARDIS. Unfortunately, your other little friends got away. Boohoo, I’ll find them sometime anyways, so more fun for me, I guess.”

“Let them go, or I’ll detonate,” she feels some misplaced relief that her fam was back on Earth. But she needed to get the _last_ humans from Earth home safely with them. On another TARDIS. She wants to laugh at the thought of having to steal another TARDIS. The timelord next to her was right. But she doesn’t and takes a shaky inhale instead.

The Master lets out a sudden, short booming laugh. “I highly doubt that Doctor, seeing as you’re a coward,” he starts, and turns towards the last humans, “Such a big ego for such a fearful little _shit,_ ” he spits out the last word like it was a disgusting piece of food. He let the little bit of emotion that wasn’t sadistic joy at pure distress out, before turning to the woman with a face of petulant rage.

She snarls, her rage simmering and growing again. She marches towards the Master. He grimaces and steps back playfully.

He then smirks after she stops her advance, “Shoot them.”

And one by one, the humans are shot slowly until only Ko Sharmus remains. She can only watch in horror.

“Stop this,” her voice cracks and shudders. The Master stops the Cyber-Timelord from killing the last man standing.

“Or what? You’ll cry me and my Cybermen away?” he replies in a mocking voice. She sucks in a deep breath.

The moments after that are blurred, a mix of colours smashed together. A blend of emotions; fury, disgust, fear, anguish. She’d given the bomb to Ko Sharmus, she ran away and stole a TARDIS.

The Doctor thought she’d gotten a break when she was finally back into _her_ TARDIS, but instead of relief, all she could do was collapse to the ground and cry.

Hot, salty tears streamed down her face, and her sobs choked her body and throat. The timelady shook furiously as she rocked back and forth. The cries kept coming. The woman started to hyperventilate and dug her palms into her eyes. The fear that seized her earlier seized her again, and her legs and arms went numb from the anxiety. Her anger was all but gone, replaced now with terror that seemed to triple as time went on. It snaked up her back and into her head. It slithered around as it ate her up and burnt her down. Her hearts raced as quickly as they could. It felt like they were going to beat out of her chest.

Then… The Doctor was interrupted by alarms. Judoon appeared, and without thought, they transported her to a maximum-security prison. She could barely get out a word.

The woman panicked harder. Curling up into a corner of her cell and trying hard to ground herself.

She was without her TARDIS, the last humans from the Cybermen-Human war were all dead, and her fam was stuck on Earth without knowing where she was. The Master mocked her. The Master showed her things she wished weren’t right. The Master killed and corrupted their species. Turned them into unfeeling monsters.

Being the Timeless Child is something the Doctor never wanted. She felt so small. She felt like the little boy in the barn- alone and an outcast. A glimpse of Clara hits her brain, but it only makes her sadder.

Her oldest friend, her oldest enemy, her former- Had broken her. He was right. She had stooped low- lower than the woman thought she had when she thought she killed everyone on Gallifrey. Except for this time, she mostly did destroy Gallifrey, twice. She killed it by letting the Master get to it and by allowing a human to use the Death Particle on what was left.

The panic gripped her chest like a cold, metal arm. She shivered, cold and hot at the same time. The Doctor cried harder. Cried for the humans she had lost, cried for her family on Earth. The Doctor cried for her people, ripped apart from her after the woman had tried so hard to protect them.

Pure despair wretched her body to pieces. Everything from everywhere hit her at once. Pain that she held with a tight grip till it burned her hand. It had burned a hole and was burning her arm, and head, and hearts.

“Oh look at you, sitting there broken,” she gasps and looks up, and tries to press herself further into the wall. “You look pathetic, Doctor. You looked mightier kneeling for me way back when… How times change, eh?” the Master smiles at her bittersweetly, standing proud and tall at her prison bars.

She doesn’t say a word and buries her head into her bent legs. Shame filled her body, and she wanted nothing more than to disappear.

“Silent treatment?”

She sobs. He laughs.

“I usually wouldn’t use them, but vortex manipulators are pretty good at the tip of a hat,” she heard him pacing outside the cell, a droning sound that annoyed her. “Unfortunately, my Cybermasters are all gone, so yay Doctor! You won! You beat me!” the timelord’s voice turned mocking. She scoffed and sniffled.

“While you’re stuck in here, I can rebuild though, torment some more people,” the Master audibly shivered and let out a sound of joy at the thought. “I’ll start with your friends. Easy enough, since I can just trace them from when I last met them on Earth,” he explains, mumbling more to himself towards the end of his sentence.

“So,” the Doctor mutters, tears still falling, but now with an emotionless look on her face as she moves her gaze and stares intently at the man.

“So!” he claps his hands together and then looks at her a little bit in confusion when she just continues to stare.

The timelady stands up and steps towards the Master. She wipes her tears, sniffles and looks at him. He looked a little shocked at the hopeless look in her eyes. She seemed ancient, like the time was finally wearing on her despite her youthful appearance. Her eyes were so full of brokenness and despair that the Master visibly looked shocked at it.

“All- For nothing at all?” she smiles manically. She looks straight into the other’s eyes. Her eyes start to well up more, and the crying starts again, tears dripping from her face unswept. The trembling that faded came back again, making her weak in the legs.

“Excuse me?”

An unknown feeling crept and turned its ugly vile head. Her hands raised themselves to her head, and she painfully pulled at her hair.

Then she was screaming. A loud, unadulterated wail. Her jaw feels like it’s unhinged as she wails and laments. Her chest feels like its alight, and she can’t get enough air in as she continues to bellow and weep her sorrow and despair. The Doctor falls to her knees, and she presses her forehead to the unforgiving ground.

She suddenly stops screaming.

“For nothing at all?” is murmured in a quiet, raspy voice. The Doctor then looks up at the Master, her face a wretched anguished mess. The Master is giving her a sad look, and she expects him to break out into a happy grin, to cheer that he broke her this much, to mock and insult. But he doesn’t.

“Oh, Doctor,” he starts, the man’s voice coming out as pitying, and doesn’t open his mouth to mutter anything else.

She weeps again, but it’s quiet and hollow. She curls up on the floor, hiding her face into her hands and coat sleeves.

She listens to him sit down outside the cell and lean against the bars.

She feels hollow and doesn’t know why she keeps crying, but she does. She weeps to weep. She sobs into herself just because. And she listens to the carefully quiet breaths of the Master as he listens to her come down from her breakdown.

“Why aren’t you mocking me?” she asks softly as she cries. Her voice is even raspier but sweet and pitched high.

“Honestly?” he questions, and laughs, something genuine from his chest, “I don’t think I need to.”

He leaves it at that.

The Doctor continues weeping.

**Author's Note:**

> i hope u enjoyed!! its really bad and flows bad in a couple spots but I'm incredibly tired and need a nap
> 
> also the "such a big ego for such a fearful little shit", part it different. i literally raved about it for a couple minutes bc I was hella proud of it lmao


End file.
